Response by Minister of State Kevin Humphries on behalf of the Minister for Justice and Equality, Ms Frances Fitzgerald, TD
Leas Cathaoirleach,
On behalf of Minister Fitzgerald, who is unavailable today, I want, at the outset, to thank Senator Naughton for raising this important subject which gives the Minister an opportunity to inform the House of developments in relation to the establishment of specialist family courts.
As the Senator is aware, the Programme for Government contains a commitment to establish a dedicated family court.
While it was originally anticipated that a referendum to amend Article 34 of the Constitution would be required in order to remove any constitutional obstacle to the establishment of a separate Family Court, it appears from more recent examination of the issues that it will be possible to proceed with the establishment of the Court in a manner which does not require such a referendum. This could be achieved by establishing the Court as a separate division within existing court structures.
The Department of Justice and Equality is currently finalising proposals for future legislation based on submissions which have been received in relation to the Family Court and ongoing consultations with interested parties. I would like to take this opportunity to outline in general terms the principle features of the proposed Family Court system.
A District Family Court, a Circuit Family Court and a Family High Court will be established as divisions of the existing District, Circuit and High Court structures. New District Family Court districts and new Circuit Family Court circuits will be established for this purpose.
It is envisaged that judges will be appointed fulltime to the District Family Court and the Circuit Family Court. In the case of the Family High Court, it is anticipated that there would not be sufficient case loads to warrant the appointment of judges full time to family law matters. Therefore judges of the Family High Court will also be able to hear other cases.
The judges appointed to the Family Courts will be selected on the basis of their training or experience in dealing with family law matters.
The new legislation will include a set of guiding principles that will apply to all family law proceedings. These guiding principles will underline the importance of encouraging and facilitating as far as possible the resolution of disputes by means of alternative resolution methods, including mediation, which provide an opportunity for a less adversarial, less stressful and less costly resolution of disputes.
The Minister intends to bring the proposals to establish the new Family Court to Government as soon as they are finalised. She intends at that point to refer the draft General Scheme of the legislation to the Justice Committee for the usual pre-legislative scrutiny prior to formal drafting of the Bill.
Once again, I would like on behalf of the Minister to thank Senator Naughton for raising this issue.